The European Union is co-financing a project to rebuild two bridges on the Albert canal in the Belgian region of Flanders to allow taller barges and ships access to this key waterway. The project, which will raise two bridges in Briegden and in Oelegem to a height of 9.1 meters, benefits from an EU contribution of €1.57 million and is part of a wider series of improvements on the Albert canal to allow for increased container traffic.

The Albert canal, the most important waterway in the Belgian region of Flanders, has a transport capacity of ±40 million tonnes (mostly in the form of container traffic), connecting the cities of Antwerp and Liège, and the Scheldt and Meuse rivers.

In order to improve this key infrastructure, and in light of the forecasted increases in container traffic, the European Commission decided to fund this action under the 2010 TEN-T Annual Call.

The raising of these two bridges, which will be completed by 2012, is a key step in upgrading the Albert canal so that it can accommodate more traffic in the years to come and hence contribute towards a modal shift from more polluting means of transportation.